About time someone woke up and smelled the cappuccino. With the sole exception of aluminum, recycling is just a feel-good program. It accomplishes very little and we are most definitely not running out of landfill space. If actually wanted to make this work, we wait 30 years for the organics in the landfill to decay and go back in there and mine everything that is left.
Nice to see some other people become aware of this - from The Washington Post:
American recycling is stalling, and the big blue bin is one reason why
Tucked in the woods 30 miles north of Washington is a plant packed with energy-guzzling machines that can make even an environmentalist’s heart sing — giant conveyor belts, sorters and crushers saving a thousand tons of paper, plastic and other recyclables from reaching landfills each day.
The 24-hour operation is a sign that after three decades of trying, a culture of curbside recycling has become ingrained in cities and counties across the country. Happy Valley, however, it is not.
Once a profitable business for cities and private employers alike, recycling in recent years has become a money-sucking enterprise. The District, Baltimore and many counties in between are contributing millions annually to prop up one of the nation’s busiest facilities here in Elkridge, Md. — but it is still losing money. In fact, almost every facility like it in the country is running in the red. And Waste Management and other recyclers say that more than 2,000 municipalities are paying to dispose of their recyclables instead of the other way around.
In short, the business of American recycling has stalled. And industry leaders warn that the situation is worse than it appears.
Much more at the site - recycling was a bubble that made a few people very rich. Now the market is gone and that bubble is popping.
Penn and Teller's television show Bullshit did an excellent episode on recycling - its origins and our actual landfill capacity. Season II, Episode #5. Youtube has it here but you need to sign in to view it.
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